Slow Cooker Pot Roast with the BEST gravy! (VIDEO) - The Recipe Rebel (2024)

FAQs

How do you thicken gravy in a crock pot roast? ›

Whisk together the corn starch with cold water until completely combined. Gradually add it to the gravy and whisk continuously to incorporate. Decrease heat to low and simmer until ready to serve. It will continue to thicken.

In your slow cooker, add in the white wine, rosemary, salt and pepper. Heat on high for about 1 1/2 hours, to cook off the alcohol. Add cornstarch into the bowl of turkey drippings and whisk together. Add that mixture to your slow cooker, cover and heat on high for another half-hour until gravy thickens.

My first choice for a beef roast is a top-round roast (also known as inside round). If you can't find one where you are, other good options are top sirloin roast, bottom round roast, or eye of round roast.

While this hands-off, low-effort method will produce delicious results, it is worth adding one additional (straightforward) step when you're slow-cooking beef. Before putting the meat in the slow cooker, brown it in a skillet for a few extra minutes.

Prop the lid up for evaporation.

While your dinner cooks, prop the lid open a bit so that moisture can escape and thicken the stew naturally without extending the cooking time too much. Skewers or chopsticks between the lid and the crock of the slow cooker work well for this.

Most cooking experts say beurre manié is one of the best last-minute ways to thicken a sauce. Mix equal amounts of softened butter and flour together, rub or knead until well combined to form a smooth paste. Whisk in small amounts of the beurre manié at a time, let your dish return to a simmer, then add more as needed.

Browning adds more flavor to the gravy and gets rid of the raw flour taste. You're basically making a roux. We find that a flour-based gravy holds up better and reheats better later, which is why we tend to prefer using flour over cornstarch to make gravy unless we have a guest who is eating gluten-free.

Place the cooker on a high setting, and open the lid for 30-45 minutes to let excess moisture cook off. The liquid will reduce, leaving you with a thick and delicious gravy or sauce. (Tip: This trick can also be applied for thickening stews, or when you've accidentally added too much liquid.)

Chuck steak was practically designed for slow cooking. It comes from the shoulder and upper arm of the cow, so it's done a lot of work over the life of the animal — with its abundant collagen, it's the type of cut that gets tough when grilled quickly, but becomes tender and juicier the longer you cook it.

What is the most tender beef roast for a slow cooker? ›

Chuck roast is one of the more popular slow-cooker options because of how tender and flavorful it becomes after several hours of cooking on low.

Cover and cook for 3 hours, or until the roast is very tender. Add the carrots and potatoes to the pot when there's about an hour of cooking time left, turning the roast over when you do. To serve, spoon any excess fat off the surface and slice or shred the beef to serve with the veggies, drizzled with sauce.

Though it's not a requirement to brown the meat before adding it to a slow cooker (unless the recipe specifies such a step), Cuisine at Home explains that doing so will enhance the meat's color, textures, and flavors.

“Beef may be tough in the slow cooker if you haven't added enough liquid, or haven't cooked it for long enough,” Kristen Carli, M.S., R.D., owner of Camelback Nutrition & Wellness, tells SELF. “For cuts of meat, the fattier cuts are often the ones that get juicy and tender.

A cornstarch slurry is a mixture of a cold liquid with cornstarch. It is used as a thickening agent, and is particularly common in Asian sauces. As a rule of thumb, dissolve 2 parts cold water and 1 part cornstarch. Add the slurry to your sauce as it simmers in the slow cooker.

Tapioca. Tapioca is derived from the cassava root. To thicken gravy, add 1 ½ teaspoons of tapioca starch into the hot liquid, whisking until well incorporated and the gravy thickens.

If your gravy is on the skimpy side, you can thicken it quickly with flour or cornstarch. But don't add your thickener directly to the gravy, which will create lumps. Instead, try stirring in three or four tablespoons of flour or cornstarch into a small amount of cold water until you have a smooth paste.